Listening To The Entire Catalog Backwards
 

So I went on a small trip this weekend which was around a 2 and a half hours each way, 5 hours total... I thought, what better way to kill time but to listen to some Jovi... I really haven't listened to much since the end of tour... I was taking a well needed break...

I decided to start with THINFS and just keep going in reverse order... This includes bonus tracks and rarities. Here are some general opinions I've observed... Mostly positive...

1. I agree with the decisions between album tracks and bonus tracks on THINFS. Now that I stepped away from it, I reentered back in with a clear head. The bonus tracks are good but the ones chosen for the album fit so much better...

2. I actually like Burning Bridges better than THINFS... I think both are very good albums and both exceeded my expectations... THINFS is more of an album whereas BB might be a little choppy but song for song, BB wins... There are some really great songs on BB... I even love the song Burning Bridges just because it's different...

3. To expand on the above, as a collection of music between the 2 including bonus tracks, I think Jon and John really came up with a lot of new original material that create a really nice listen when you put it all together...

4. Here is the shocker.. I thoroughly enjoyed What About Now... I think the album is underrated and people are way too hard on it... The production is great and song for song it's a really good album... There are a few I'd get rid of like Amen but I'm like that with every album... Ever since Jon did The Fighter live in Philly, it created an instant soft spot with me... I'm also a sucker for the fast paced pop songs... Because We Can sounded fresh... Beautiful World is Beautiful Day. Not just because of the title "Beautiful" either. They just sound a lot alike but Beautiful World is much better. I love the part "The Pretzel man's wearing Gucci glasses"... Army Of One would be a better bonus track however the remaining songs below are all really good...

I'm with You
Pictures Of You
That's What The Water Made Me
What's Left of Me
Thick As Thieves
Room At The End Of The World

The 2 bonus songs Into The Echo and With These Two Hands are decent. I'm not really crazy about and two Stand Up Guy songs but they are tolerable... Of that acoustic style, The Fighter is the winner and I'm glad it stayed in WAN as a album track and not he 3rd song on the Soundtrack... Another decision that was made correctly...

5. The Circle is fantastic. Jon's voice sounds different and I never even realized it until today... Working Man actually comes across decent because Jon is not screeching through it and the studio production works... I still wouldn't care if it fell off though... Born To Follow was a poor single but not a bad track... Love's The Only Rule is still my favorite post 2000 song... Awesome Song...

This is where I stopped for the day... Overall TC, WAN, BB, & THINFS are all really good albums... I even change my opinion of Shanks... When you listen to them on CD / FLAC through a good stereo, the production is incredible...

I'll continue to add more as I go...

The songs you listed above I love. I also like Burn With Me that was never used and Into The Echo (German version)
The album gets a bit bogged down with shit like Amen, BWC (good versus awful chorus) Not Running Anymore, The Fighter and Army of one - I dont like the Richie song just thrown on at the end. But when good its really good.

Funny cos this album just average to me. Few good songs like Thorn, Brokenpromisedland and Loves the Only Rule.

RE - THISNFS - The bonus tracks sound so different to the album tracks I created another folder on Ipod called THINFS - Bonus Tracks - Theres 7 songs in there so its like an EP

When a new release comes out, you listen to it much differently than you do a few years later once you're familiar with the material..

When you first listen, you're quick to compare, judge, and critique. A bad first single in combination with a few lame tracks can really dictate an album quickly and leave a bad overall impression... Every album has its throwaway song or two, even in the 80's and 90's... Okay, maybe New Jersey doesn't but still...

Once you listen song by song, you go "oh, that song wasn't too bad" and then you go onto the next one and say the same thing again and again. Before you know it, your're at the end of the album. In this situation, WAN wasn't nearly as painful as I remembered it being...

In comparison to others, it might be a weaker effort but it doesn't mean it's a bad album either... I'll stick up for this album any day...

Well said. I actually was listening to the WAN cd the other day and had your thoughts. I'm still not a fan of Amen but the other songs really aren't as dreadful, in my opinion as they get accused of being.

Interesting. Didn't like it much upon releaste date, but then I could still find a few enjoyable moments. Listened to it again a few weeks ago and really disliked it pretty much from start to finish. The production is horrendous at parts. Ok, it's the same on the most current record, but that one has songs I can relate to and that I like.

I do agree with you that I find the songs on THINFS a lot more relatable than WAN with the exception of a few. Into The Echo, is still by far my favorite song and it was an extra lol!

Is 'What About Now' the one where some tracks sound really clean and polished and then the others sound grainy?

Which songs in particular?? Besides Army of One and Amen

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I've never liked Because We Can due to it's poor chorus. It's their worst lead single of any album for me to this day. I'm With You is fine, but I only listen to the live version since it sounds like Jon gets backed up by roboters on the album. What About Now was a song I initially enjoyed quite a lot and it's still (it was around the time I had started my studies to become a teacher and we were fighting against insanely high student fees in our area back then, so the song somehow cut it for me) a decent one. Pictures of You is one song similar to The Distance for me in terms of almost everyone liking it and I'm failing to see why. Water was good at the live shows, but Bobby's (or Shanks') guitar sound being so upfront on the album doesn't work for me. What's Left of Me probably is my favourite from the standard album. Army of One, I think musically it's decent, but the lyrics are so damn dumb that it might've gotten a pass in their early days. For a band in their 50's that's not working anymore. Thick As Thieves is good if I manage it to make it past the "electric chair" part of the lyrics. Beautiful World has the line "there's glory in the saddest story" which I quite like and the melody is working there as well, but as a whole it just falls flat on me.
So does Room which is kind of surprising to me, not only because it had gotten a lot of praise on here, but also because I genereally like these kind of moody tunes (I enjoy She's A Mystery and Labor of Love a lot). Here something just doesn't connect with me.
The Fighter is a song I had instantly liked but after that marathon of mid-tempo and slow drag-along songs it just passes me by. Not Running Anymore and Into The Echo I listen to quite a lot, though.

The album has its moments, but it seems that they just couldn't piece it together. Almost each song has a section where I think "that's good", but it gets outweighed by a part that's just too rubbish for me. And the song order totally kills it, especially on the 2nd half.

Before THINFS was released I did this but started at the beginning and worked forward. I really felt like the quality dropped big time with The Circle and then even more with What About Now. But then Burning Bridges came along and is almost as good as any album that they have done post-2000 for me, and I still think that. THINFS is a huge improvement from What About Now, but I still think Burning Bridges is better and I find myself going back to it way more! It has some of Jon's finest performances for over a decade for me.